Caring for the environment
When ten businesses in Wellington CBD?s Majestic Centre took part in a Greater Wellington initiative to reduce waste, 23.5 tonnes of material was recycled and 1,630 litres of food waste was composted over a three-month trial rather that being sent to the landfill.
A total of 36 businesses took part in waste reduction projects during the year.
This year, more people became involved in looking after the environment through our environmental education programmes and community care groups. For instance, 3,000 primary school students were involved in our Take Action education programme while three new groups joined the Take Care programme. We also introduced a new education programme dealing with air quality, transport and climate change issues.
We produced Measuring Up, a report that provides vital information about the health of the region?s natural and physical resources. Produced every six years, the report enables us to gauge how well we are achieving the objectives of our Regional Policy Statement. It is also the first step in a review of our Regional Policy Statement ? a major activity for the coming year.
Working with other councils, emergency services and health providers, we have planned for and delivered emergency management in the region. We have also completed a risk assessment of Wellington Harbour, which will form the basis of our Safety Management System for the harbour.
Our work with private landowners to enhance streams, rivers and wetlands continued throughout 2005/06. Two additional wetland areas were approved for covenants with our financial support, bringing the number of legally protected wetlands to 32.
This year, 215 hectares of forest were protected under QEII National Trust covenants. An additional 13 native forest areas were approved for covenants, bringing the number of legally protected native forest areas in the Wellington region to 179.